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Newt Gingrich compares mosque to Nazis

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday compared the mosque planned to go up blocks away from ground zero in New York to Nazis protesting next to the Holocaust museum.

Gingrich highlighted the fact that New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson and numerous others have proposed alternative locations for the mosque in arguing that the leaders of the cultural center are “radical Islamists” who want to prove that “they can build a mosque next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by Islamists.”

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“That's why they won't accept any other offer,” he said during an interview on Fox News's "Fox & Friends."

Gingrich then declared that if the mosque is indeed being built as a symbol, which its leaders have repeatedly denied, New York authorities have every right to prevent it from being built.

“We ought to be honest about the fact that we have a right and this happens all the time in America,” he said.

“Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington,” Gingrich insisted, speaking of the museum where just a year ago a guard was killed by a white supremacist trying to enter the building with a gun.

Gingrich then went on to claim that “we would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor.”

“There is no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center,” he said.

Readers' Comments (447)

Go Newt go! The serial adulterer and ethically challenged former politician has found a cause!

And of course he uses the Hitler comparison right up front, no waiting for him!

Newt is going to be running for President, so he needs a good wedge issue to demagogue on. He thinks he's found it. Now all we need is Coulter to say we need to cut all their heads off and turn them into Christians.

Worshipers exit the old Burlington Coat Factory near ground zero, which now houses a prayer space.

snip:

The mayor’s director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Fatima Shama, went further. “We as New York Muslims have as much of a commitment to rebuilding New York as anybody,” Ms. Shama said. Imam Feisal’s wife, Daisy Khan, serves on an advisory team for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the memorial, said, “The idea of a cultural center that strengthens ties between Muslims and people of all faiths and backgrounds is positive.”

The location was precisely a key selling point for the group of Muslims who bought the building in July. A presence so close to the World Trade Center, “where a piece of the wreckage fell,” said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the cleric leading the project, “sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11.”

“ As a Sufi, Imam Feisal follows a path of Islam focused more on spiritual wisdom than on strict ritual, and as a bridge builder, he is sometimes focused more on cultivating relations with those outside his faith than within it.

snip:

“ Building so close is owning the tragedy. It’s a way of saying: ‘This is something done by people who call themselves Muslims. We want to be here to repair the breach, as the Bible says.’ ”

The F.B.I. said Imam Feisal had helped agents reach out to the Muslim population after Sept. 11. “We’ve had positive interactions with him in the past,” said an agency spokesman, Richard Kolk. Alice Hoagland of Las Gatos, Calif., whose son, Mark Bingham, was killed in the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, said, “It’s quite a bold step buying a piece of land adjacent to ground zero,” but she said she considered plans for the site “a noble effort.”

snip:

Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center, said the group would be proud to be a model for Imam Feisal at ground zero. “For the J.C.C. to have partners in the Muslim community that share our vision of pluralism and tolerance would be great,” she said.

I am not sure if Newt's comments are a greater insult to the religion of islam or to the American public's intelligence. At least he seems to be hitting his stride with getting his "giant hypocrite merit badge", so there is that at least.

The Republican critics of the Muslim cultural center are playing the part of Nazis, demonizing a religious minority in the United States.

Muslims are a perfect target for the GOP, consisting largely of residents of the Middle East and African Americans.

Opposing the construction of mosques -- both in New York and in other states -- is part of a larger campaign by conservatives to energize the mostly white base of the Republican Party by stirring racial fears.

If we are to believe Republican leaders, (illegal) Mexican immigrants are terrorizing the Southwest.

Groups advocating for poor blacks are a threat to democracy.

All muslims are terrorists.

Unions, whether representing service workers or teachers, are all thugs under the control of bosses.

What is sad is that this campaign will succeed with many white voters, frightened by a weak economy hollowed out by 30 years of trickle-down economics.

The GOP is catering to the anti-Islam hate-mongers in a crude attempt to garner votes. Rabble-rousing is always easy when armed with racist lies. This is how Hitler persuaded the German people to murder 6 million Jews. all

Hey Politico, you're outdoing even your own slanted standards. In the first paragraph, you managed to get Newt Gingrich, moque, nazis and protesting. You even get bonus points for the picture of an angry looking Gingrich. Way to go! Journolist journalism is alive and well, even if the site is gone.

The muslims shouldn't even be considering building a mosque so close to where almost 3000 people were murdered by radical muslims if they are at all tolerant of OTHER'S FEELINGS. They would know this will just enflame relations. THEY CAN SEE THE OVERWHELMING REACTION NOW, AND THEY STILL WON'T BACK DOWN---WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?

THEY ARE THE EXTREME MINORITY IN THIS COUNTRY.HOW THEY THEY WELCOME CHURCHES IN THEIR HOMELAND AND NEXT TO THEIR SACRED SITES? SHALL WE PUT IT TO A TEST?

@willbheard You are exactly correct Newt sounds like the fascist propagandist all the while accusing the President of being one. The right is a real piece of work, but the large number of American's that are buying into this line of propaganda is the real problem. I being born after WWII and Vietnam, have often wondered how the people of the country I love could commit internment against their fellow citizens. I am seeing before my eyes how it could have happened and how even if, unfathomable to me, could happen again.

@willbheard You are exactly correct Newt sounds like the fascist propagandist all the while accusing the President of being one. The right is a real piece of work, but the large number of American's that are buying into this line of propaganda is the real problem. I being born after WWII and Vietnam, have often wondered how the people of the country I love could commit internment against their fellow citizens. I am seeing before my eyes how it could have happened and how even if, unfathomable to me, could happen again.